The Internet is a loose network of connected computers spread throughout the world. A message can be sent from any computer on the Internet to any other by specifying a destination address and passing the message from computer to computer via a series of "hops." Each computer, or "node," on the Internet has a unique Internet address. When an intermediate computer receives a message in transit, the computer checks the intended destination of the message and passes it along accordingly.
The Internet is growing, in terms of both size and sophistication, at a rapid rate. In the past, most users of the Internet were academic, research, or institutional users; the Internet was primarily used at that time to transmit and receive electronic mail and network news and to allow transfer of computer files.
However, since the introduction of the World Wide Web (also known as the "Web" or the "WWW") several years ago, the Internet has begun to host increasing amounts of other types of data of general interest, namely representations of images, articles, etc.
The Web presents a graphical user interface to the Internet. "Web pages," often consisting primarily of text and graphical material, are stored on numerous computers, known as "Web servers," throughout the Internet. These Web pages are generally described, in terms of layout and content, by way of a language known as "HTML" (HyperText Markup Language). Any particular computer linked to the Internet can store one or more Web pages, i.e. computer files in HTML format, for access by users. The Web pages are accessed via a protocol known as "HTTP" (HyperText Transport Protocol). The HTTP protocol specifies the language by which request are made to transfer data between a server computer and a client computer.
A software program known as a "browser" can be used to access and view Web pages across the Internet by specifying the location (i.e. Internet address) of the desired Web page, or more commonly, by "hotlinking" to Web pages. Two of the most popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer.RTM. and Netscape Navigator.RTM.. The desired Web page is specified by a uniform resource locator ("URL") , which Usually indicates the precise location of the HTML file in the format "http://internet.address/directory/filename.html".
Hotlinking is accomplished as follows. The user first accesses a Web page having a known address, often on the computer located at the user's ISP (Internet Service Provider). The ISP is the organization providing Internet connectivity to the user. The accessed Web page can contain, in addition to textual and visual data specified in HTML format, "links," or embedded information (in the form of URLs) pointing to the Internet addresses of other Web pages, often on other computers throughout the Internet. The user, by selecting a link (often by pointing and clicking with a mouse), can then access other Web pages, which can in turn contain further data and/or additional links.
The selection of a link causes the browser to issue a request to the server computer specified by the URL, typically via the so-called "GET method" described by the HTTP specification, version 1.0. A message sent via the GET method requests the server computer to transmit a specified item of data, typically (at first) a Web page in HTML format. The GET request is received and processed by the remote server computer, which then transmits the requested information from wherever in the world it may be located, across the Internet, to the user. The Web page received by the user typically will contain references to embedded images and other non-textual data, which in turn can be processed by the browser, resulting in additional GET requests to retrieve the other data. It should be noted that a GET method request need not directly specify the identity of the requested file; it can contain a code that is processed and decoded by the server computer to identify the requested file.
Another type of request authorized by HTTP 1.0 is made via the "POST method." A message sent via the POST method requests the server to accept a quantity of information and store it in a file or transfer it to an application running on the server computer. The POST method typically is used to send information from the user to the server computer for processing by the server, although the GET method can be used to accomplish this task, as well, via a code-containing URL.
In recent times, the Web has begun to host highly sophisticated types of multimedia content, such as audio and video data. Various extensions to HTML, such as Netscape's EMBED tag, allow references to other data to be embedded into Web pages. External programs, or "plug-ins," to the browsers can be automatically invoked to handle the data as it is received from the remote Web server computer.
One problem presented by the proliferation of audio, video, and other types of non-textual data on the Internet relates to the distribution and storage of audio/video data and multimedia software programs for retrieving and playing back audio/video data. Before a video can be transmitted over a computer network, the video must be digitized by encoding the video's analog signal to "1s" and "0s." In order to reduce the bandwidth required to transmit the digitized video, the video data stream is compressed. Video compression is a process by which redundant data is eliminated from the video data stream so that the overall size of the data stream is reduced. There are many different compression formats which are used to reduce video data streams, for example MPEG, motion JPEG, H.261, Indeo, Cinepak, AVI, QuickTime, TrueMotion, Wavelet, and RealVideo, among others.
Videos which are transmitted and received in a compressed format must be decompressed before they can be viewed- Decompression of a video is done by a video player coder/decoder, or "codec," located at a user's multimedia terminal, usually as a plug-in or companion to the browser. Generally speaking, a single codec can only recognize and decompress a single compression format or family of related formats.
When the video clip requested by a user is stored for transmission in a format which can be decompressed by one of the codecs installed at the user terminal, delivery of the video clip to the user can proceed smoothly. This is typically the situation where a subscription service provides video delivery over a confined network. The service will provide the subscribing user with a preferred codec and then store video clips in the same compression format recognized by that codec.
However, when the service begins to make video clips available over the Internet, it is more likely that the video clips will be requested by a non-subscribing user whose multimedia terminal does not have a codec that recognizes the compression format in which the video clips are stored. If this is the case, the user's video request must be redirected to a video clip stored in a compression format recognized by the user's codec, or the user must somehow acquire and install a codec program which is capable of decompressing the desired video clip. In many cases, the video request cannot be redirected to a video clip with a recognizable format, because video clips generally are not stored in a variety of compression formats, due to their large size and the limited storage capacity of the server. In this situation, downloading a new codec is the only alternative.
A codec program is frequently accessible via a link embedded in the web page referencing the requested video. Thus, it is usually possible to select and download the codec program via the Internet. When a user requests a video clip referenced on a web page, the browser usually prompts the user to acquire the codec necessary to decompress the format of the requested video. However, in order to acquire the codec, the user is forced to hotlink to a different web page, find the correct codec, transmit certain information to the codec provider, download and install the codec, and then try to find the original Web page with the link to the originally requested video file. Each time the user selects a video in a format not recognized by a codec at the user terminal, this process must be repeated.
Preferably, the process of acquiring and downloading a new codec can be partially or completely automated. This can be done in at least two ways. First, the process can be fully automated by the content provider by acquiring distribution rights to a codec, and then devising an installation script or computer program that is capable of automatically acquiring the codec from the content provider (rather than directly from the codec provider) and then installing the codec. Unfortunately, it can be expensive or difficult to acquire distribution rights in a codec produced by another company, and the creation of an installation script can also be resource-intensive. Second, a script can be created which simply acquires a new codec from the codec provider, with the installation of the codec left to the codec provider (via a script or program usually included with the codec package). However, with the latter alternative, the codec installation process may have an inconsistent "look and feel" because the installation script was created by an independent codec provider, rather than the content provider.
Most video content providers are constantly enhancing the performance characteristics of their video data and as they do, the codecs which recognize those videos are updated to take advantage of the video enhancement features. In order for a user to determine whether or not his or her codec needs to be updated, or whether an upgraded version of the codec has been released, the user must locate the Web page of the codec provider, compare the information on that page with his own system properties, determine whether he has the latest update or version and then proceed with downloading the latest update or version to the user terminal. If the user wants to keep all multimedia software updated, this process must be repeated for each of the codecs stored in memory.
Finally, enriched or enhanced video files are distributed randomly across the Internet at the discretion of the content provider. There is no single source, or user's guide, that advises the user of the location of enhanced video files or the availability of improved multimedia software that can be used to view enhanced video files, nor is there a single source program that enables the user to access all of the data. Web pages embedding references to video files are usually encountered by chance when a user browses the Internet. If a user finds a web page referencing a video file and opens it, he may encounter a link to a content provider or video delivery service that provides access to a list of videos in a particular compression format and a link to a codec that can be used to view the videos carried by that provider. However, these content providers usually do not store videos and codecs in multiple formats, and they do not provide links to differently formatted video content or multimedia software stored at other sites around the Internet.
Thus, a need can be seen for a solution that deals with all of the aforementioned problems in a comprehensive way such that improved access to the best video content is assured and the user's enjoyment of Internet-delivered audio and video is maximized. Accordingly, a solution is provided herein by way of the following described invention.